[Subliminal Aura]

Hi there,

I was wondering if you whizz kids could help me.

I've got a Sony HC90E which seems to be doing me well but I'm having trouble converting the captured files.

Typically I used to use Pinnacle Studio to capture the DV but experienced some drops and odd aspect ratios with the Pinnacle so I switched to Sony's Vegas Pro(as recommended on a few threads here) which I've been using today - so far so good.

Here's the mediainfo of captured files using both software

File captured with Pinnacle

Complete name : \\foo.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format profile : OpenDML
File size : 4.46 GiB
Duration : 21mn 2s
Overall bit rate : 30.3 Mbps
Recorded date : 2006-04-03 13:13:17

ID : 0
Format : Digital Video
Codec ID : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint : Sony
Duration : 21mn 2s
Bit rate : 28.8 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Original display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.778
Stream size : 4.23 GiB (95%)
Encoding settings : ae mode=full automatic / wb mode=automatic / white balance= / fcm=manual focus



File captured with Vegas

Complete name : C:\foo.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 111 MiB
Duration : 31s 40ms
Overall bit rate : 30.0 Mbps
Recorded date : 2009-10-04 19:39:32
TAPE : Foo
TCOD : 46800000
TCDO : 357200000
VMAJ : 4
VMIN : 0
STAT : 776 0 3.432453 1
DTIM : 30033194 1695576576

ID : 0
Format : Digital Video
Codec ID : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint : Sony
Duration : 31s 40ms
Bit rate : 28.8 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Original display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Standard : PAL
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 2.778
Stream size : 107 MiB (96%)
Encoding settings : ae mode=full automatic / wb mode=automatic / white balance= / fcm=manual focus

Format : PCM
Format settings, Endianness : Little
Format settings, Sign : Unsigned
Codec ID : 1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Duration : 31s 40ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 1 024 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 32.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 3.79 MiB (3%)
Interleave, duration : 280 ms (6.99 video frames)
Interleave, preload duration : 280 ms


Now how do I go from that format to say mpeg4/mkv ? I only had the option to write as xvid from Vegas and the quality wasn't great.

Other software/codecs I have available, nero, cyberlink powerdvd ?

I would really like to convert to 2 formats ...

1 - High res for playback on a media player such as O!play

2 - Avg quality like the xvids I have created for uploading to Youtube or Vimeo

Any help on the conversion would be much appreaciated

Many thanks

[Subliminal Aura]

No answers ?

Come on this is simple. What do you guys use to compress DV avi streams to the best quality ?

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by Subliminal Aura

No answers ?

Come on this is simple. What do you guys use to compress DV avi streams to the best quality ?

This is a strange question just capture the footage to your pc via firewire lead, if you have filmed in hd mode capture hd mode , simply edit your footage and then output to dv tape again or make dvd, avchd ,or even bd discs with the edited footage,i dont know what the problems with pinnacle are but your new software seems to be making a simple job difficult.

[Subliminal Aura]

Originally Posted by chrishull3

This is a strange question just capture the footage to your pc via firewire lead, if you have filmed in hd mode capture hd mode , simply edit your footage and then output to dv tape again or make dvd, avchd ,or even bd discs with the edited footage,

Thanks Chris,

But this is the point. Captured footage is high bitrate and doesn't play in all players so I want to convert it to h.264 mkv or better.

Can anyone suggest good software or a howto for doing this ?

Many thanks in advance

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by Subliminal Aura

Thanks Chris,

But this is the point. Captured footage is high bitrate and doesn't play in all players so I want to convert it to h.264 mkv or better.

Can anyone suggest good software or a howto for doing this ?

Many thanks in advance

This is what i said even pinnacle will convert the hdv to dvd,avchd or bd disc or do you want to play the footage not on disc or tape.if you are saying the footage has to be converted h.264 mkv to make playable discs i cant help sorry.

[willj12]

Try using Handbreak to transcode the footage. HandBrake

[Subliminal Aura]

Originally Posted by chrishull3

This is what i said even pinnacle will convert the hdv to dvd,avchd or bd disc or do you want to play the footage not on disc or tape.if you are saying the footage has to be converted h.264 mkv to make playable discs i cant help sorry.

No these software packages convert the video to disc... This is actually NOT what I want... I would prefer them to be rendered to a mkv file or equivalent.

I can convert them to xvid but really am looking for better quality.

Thanks again

[Subliminal Aura]

Originally Posted by willj12

Try using Handbreak to transcode the footage. HandBrake

Totally forgot about handbrake ...

Seems like the Constant Quality Rate is the one for me

Thanks

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by Subliminal Aura

No these software packages convert the video to disc... This is actually NOT what I want... I would prefer them to be rendered to a mkv file or equivalent.

I can convert them to xvid but really am looking for better quality.

Thanks again

HDV tape or BLU RAY is the best you can get from hdv origional footage,

[Alan Paterson]

Looking at the information you've supplied, it appears that you've captured standard definition footage in Vegas. If I were you, I'd export an .avi of the final edited footage from Vegas, then you can either use this file to burn a DVD in Ulead DVDMoviefactory (or similar) or convert it to another format depending on your requirements. I use Grass Valley Procoder3, which converts almost any format to any other format.
Hope this helps.
Alan

[Subliminal Aura]

Thanks mate I'll look into those.

[chrishull3]

You still wont be able to convert SD TO HD which is why always best to record and capture in hd and if sd is required there is the option to do so after.

[A n d r e w]

Chris, he's recording on an HC90.

[chrishull3]

Originally Posted by A n d r e w

Chris, he's recording on an HC90.

Its still dv tape and the origional is the best footage you can get,

[Ken42]

I use Sony Vegas Platinum and have edited both HD and SD footage from four different cameras, sometimes using both SD and HD footage in the same movie. I have created movies for YouTube (HD), DVDs for relatives in the US (NTSC) and for PAL (mpeg2), for BluRay and back onto tape in HD and SD.

Vegas Pro has more features, so you should at least be able to do what I can do.

I've just loaded a short SD clip into Vegas Platinum

The Make Movie feature allows you to make movies to your hard drive, to various types of disc, to a camera or portable device, to YouTube and to email.

In the Hard Drive section you can make movies in the following formats:

MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (*.mpg, *.m2v, *.m2t,*.mpa), QuickTime(*.mov), RealMedia (*.m), SonyAVC (*.mp4, *.m2ts, *.avc), *.avi and *.wmv.

In MPEG-2 you can use various formats including BluRay, not that the HD formats will improve the quality of your footage.

In the Disc section you can use standard DVD, BluRay, CD or CD-ROM.

I don't know anything about media players, but suspect that one of the quality formats will do.

Alternatively, go onto the Sony Creative forums and ask there.

Sony Creative Software - Forums - Vegas Movie Studio

[senu]

Originally Posted by Subliminal Aura

No these software packages convert the video to disc..

. Not quite so,
Pinnacle Studio does convert to files. Not just disc. You really need to find out how
In fact most of the packages do:They dont just output to disc
Vegas does too ; File, render as; will open the various files type for you
.Im sure a few folk here can give you tips on it if need be

This is actually NOT what I want...

What you need is how to know how to output files rather than make discs
"Make Movie" ( in Pinnacle Studio) is not just about making Discs

I would prefer them to be rendered to a mkv file or equivalent.
I can convert them to xvid but really am looking for better quality.

mkv does not really tend to be supported by mainstream editors but it isnt the only good format small sized file infact it isnt really a format as such
Just to corect a misconception though, mkv conversion you seek to get will not create quality files any more than divx. wmv , mpeg2 or mp4, they are not "better quality" just because they are mkv
mkv generally uses h.264 compression, and is only a " wrapper" for those files in the same way as " avi"
Many of the mkv files you see online were created from Hidef files and reflect the quality of their source files
If you must create mkv, you can turn your DV AVI files with THIS
Just dont expect them to look special

[Subliminal Aura]

Thankyou all for your help.

I've now watched a few videos about Vegas Pro and now know where all the options are

Looks like a good package to use too.